Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Kingshott's Kit

Found another entry for our occasional series of British Woodworking Writers' Suggested Tool Kits, so thought I'd share. In this case, Mr Jim Kingshott from his book on The Workshop. For some reason RJK seems to be rather better regarded across the Pond than here in his native land, possibly helped by the availability of his four videos/DVDS over there. Plus he used to write for Traditional Woodworking, which seemed to me was always the forgotten magazine of UK woodworking. Anyway, on with the kit:

Basic Kit

Jack plane

Steel smoothing plane

9in try square

2ft steel rule

Marking knife

26in crosscut saw, 8 or 9 ppi

10in Tenon saw

Combination mortise and marking gauge

Firmer chisels 3/8in, 1/2in, 3/4in, 1in

Mallet

Warrington 8oz hammer

Medium oilstone

Screwdriver, 8in cabinet pattern

Fine nail punch

Bradawl

Pincers, 8in

Ratchet brace, 8in or 10in sweep

Twist bits: 1/4in, 3/8in, 1/2in, 3/4in [Auger bits for the brace]

Countersink

-x-

As a Basic Kit goes, this is not dissimilar to Charles Hayward's - and, I reckon, lacks in much a similar way. Not a bevel edged chisel among them? And in RJK's case, none of them smaller than 3/8in, forsooth?! And no means to efficiently make rebates or grooves either. I'd also have recommended anything but a combination mortise/marking gauge. They seem like a good, and economic idea, but those things eat fingers. So, thus far I'm a little ho-hum. Onwards:

Supplementary Tools

Panel saw 20in, 10 or 12 ppi

Dovetail saw, 22 or 24 ppi

Coping saw

Fore or panel plane in metal [RJK was, of course, a big fan of the infill plane]

Block plane, 60 1/2 or 9 1/2 (both if you can afford them)

Metal fillister Record No.778

Bullnose plane, 1in cutter

Shoulder plane, 1 1/4in cutter

Plough plane or combination with cutters

Router

Bevelled-edge chisels; 5/8in, 7/8in, 1 1/4in

Gouges (obtain as and when needed)

Screwdriver bit [Presumably for the brace]

4in and 12in try squares

Mitre square

Sliding bevel

Cutting gauge

Dividers with screw adjustment

Pin hammer, 3oz

Spokeshaves, one flat sole and one round sole

Fine oilstone

-x-

Well this is more like it, and again a lot of similarity with Hayward. Still no narrower chisel listed though, which surprises me - unless we should be blaming a typo somewhere, about which I'm starting to wonder. On the other hand, "plough plane or combination" makes my combination plane-loving little heart swell with love for the late RJK...

Recommending two block planes strikes me as interesting though, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, many a woodworker, the more they do, the less they find themselves using block planes at all - I'm one of them, which is slightly ironic given how many of the darn things I have. The old school, classically-trained woodworker, will often seem to regard the ownership of a block plane at all as utterly superfluous and tend to look at the modern amateur a trifle pityingly for even wondering about getting one. But two?! One low angle and one standard angle? If I recall El Presidente correctly, LV only make a standard angle 'cos the educational establishments call for it - owing to the ham-fisted yoof in days of yore having an uncanny ability to bust the more delicate low angle bed on a 60 1/2. So you gave them a more robust 9 1/2 instead, right? But this is a kit for a novice joiner and/or cabinetmaker - a kit whose list includes an expensive and equally vulnerable shoulder plane - so robustness is not an issue. And if it is, you wouldn't be recommending a 60 1/2 in the first place, would you?

In short, I am, I freely confess, utterly perplexed at the double block recommendation in a supposed Starter Hand Tool Kit. Any reader who cares to enlighten me, the comments box welcomes you with open arms - there may even be tea and biscuits.

On the whole I'm still inclined to favour John Brown's list as being the most comprehensive and avoiding the trap of trying to give a pared down list of "basics" that really, IMO, fall just short of being truly useful. Only black mark is his lack of a plough plane. Sigh. Anyway, comparing them all, it does give a fairly good idea of what really are the essentials, and which are the individual's pet likes. You never know, that might be useful to someone.

A standard angle block plane is more of a carpenter's tool. I've used one extensively, but not in the shop with the work secured in a vise. There are many occasions where you need to hold the work in one hand and plane it with the other, for instance when you want to fit wood trim, or window casing, or . . . it's hard to say until you need it then it's the only thing that'll do. I saw one guy replacing rotten vertical wood panels on a little red caboose and the new ones were, you guessed it, too wide. He was on the job site, there's no 400 pound Roubo bench with sliding deadman blah blah blah so he just held the plank in one hand and planed one of the edges with a 9 1/2 until the plank fit. Try doing that with a bench plane--just too awkward. At any rate, I keep a little Sargent 307 in my go-around-and-fix-crap-around-the-house toolbox. Very handy for all sorts of things, probably why they sold a ton.

A low angle 60 1/2 style comes in handy when you're working on a convex edge and a chisel is a bit unpredictable. They say a low angle plane is just a chisel in a metal adjustable jig, and I found my much-maligned maroon monster to be just the thing when dealing with some reversing grain on the outside curve of a mahogany rudder. My spokeshave just wasn't, ahem, cutting it. You can also shoot end grain better with a low angle of course. There are many occasions where I think you just want to trim something up a little, and not make such a big production by getting out the shooting board and lighting up the censer and sprinkling water and observing all the formalities.